Is Beats About Everything? The Beats Wireless earbud lineup: From Solo to Apple, from USB-C to 3.5mm Headphone Jacks

There is more to these than a logo. Unlike the Solo 3, the fourth-gen cans uniquely support native software features (like one-tap pairing and Find My / Find My Device) on both Android and iOS; Beats has quietly become Apple’s Android-friendly brand, in case you weren’t paying attention. And for an old-school guy like me, I love that the company is putting an emphasis on wired, lossless listening over either USB-C or the 3.5mm headphone jack. Sonically, these are a world apart from Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 or the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2e headphones that I often carry — both of which are more expensive. But they are also for different groups. As ever, Beats is about cultural cachet, that prominent “b” logo, and enjoyable (if not mind-blowing) sound.

The earbuds themselves can last 18 hours on a charge, but after that, you need to juice them up over the usb-c port to keep them going. With this launch, the Beats wireless earbud lineup now looks like this:

That isn’t to say that Beats took everything out of the park. A complete lack of active noise cancellation in any $200 pair of wireless headphones is hard to overlook; the ear cushions have provided relatively good natural noise isolation in my local coffee shop and when traversing Brooklyn, but ANC is always appreciated when the clamor starts to bubble over. The short-lived Solo Pro had it, but not these, which are technically a sequel to the eight-year-old Solo 3.

The brains of the recent PRODUCTS have been retained by Beats, rather than an Apple chip which would have made these more appealing to iPhone owners. This means that you will get some software tricks even if you are using a different operating system. This approach feels right to me. Apple fans get at least one exclusive: personalized spatial audio with head tracking. But the Android crowd gets automatic device switching between Android, Chromebooks, and other devices.

Automatic De-Usage of the Beats App via a Voice Assistant: What Can You Really Expect to Learn from Your Devices?

Every smart device these days requires you to agree to a series of terms before you can use it. We cannot read and analyze every one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

You can use the headphones out of the box without agreeing to anything if you pair them over the wireless connection. You are subject to the privacy policy of Apple when you use the voice assistant in the iPhone or iPad.

The company asks if you would like to automatically send the data from their analytics app to Apple. “Apple collects information about your Beats app and Beats product, such as the software versions, device rename occurrences, and device update success and fail rates, in order to improve the product.” Apple says none of this data allows the company to personally identify you. It’s possible to update the software via the desktop app.

The Beats app also requests background location permission so it can “connect to your Beats instantly, check battery status on the fly, and access deeper functionality.”